The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-12-23
MORSE AND HIS TELEGRAPH.

Tie Iittie instrument tn"t M"uc INV
Fortune Preserved ut the National
Museum.
The National Museum ut Washington
has one of the first locomotives in the
country. and think it has the one upon
which Peter Cooper acted MS engineer.
Here is the original Morse telegraph
instrument, and il was on this instru-
ment that the first Geographic mes
sage in the world was sent. This line
ran from Washington TO Baltimore,
and the first words were; "What hath
God wrought" Shortly after the line
was completed there was political con-
yersaton held nj Baltimore, which
nominated President and VicePresi-
dent. The vice.presiden,ial candidate
was at Washington, and he was S.iass
Wright then United States senator
He tecgraphed a dcclinalion OF the
nomination, but the convention would
not trust the telegraph on such an I'M
portant matter. and they came b. cars
to Washington to persuade him to nc
cept the second place Oh the ticket with
Polk. He refused. however, and DaF
las was nominated.
Morse eventually made II fortune out
of the telegraph, and in 1859 some oil
the foreign powers made him pres
ent of $50, 0O). The King of Prussia
gave him II gold snuil'bOX, and he re-
ceivcd a present from the Sultan oi
Turkey of decoration belonging to
the court in diamonds Still, VIII lie his
bill was before Congress, he SAID one
day, that he had enough money to pay
his board and get ont of Washington II
the bill did not pass. II was passed
the last day of the Congress OF lS43'
and it rave him $50. 900 to build an cx-
detrimental line between Washington
and Baltimore. lie first tried to PM
the wire in lead pipe in the ground.
but finally adopted the pole system
which is now in use.
TO show how little the people then
knew of the telegraph. no less man
than the Secretary OF the Treasury
asked Morse how large II bundle could
be sent over the wires. and he wanted
TO know whether it might moi be posi-
bic for the United States mail to be
carried by them. A congressman
brought bundle of dirty shirts to the
telegraph Office in the Capitol ANA
wanted them sent 10 Baltimore Tor
washing. Dolly Madison sent II mes
sage TO n friend of hers in Baltimore
and the telegraph was the great excite
ment of the hour. Morse ut tbs time
offered his whole right in the patent to
fine Government, for 800, 900. and was,
fortunately for him, laughed at and re-
fused.
1t was upon the Baltimore n Ohio
Telegraph company, during the lime
it was fighting the Western Union.
based its claim to be the Oldest tcle-
graph company in the world in that it
held this line between Washington and
Baltimore upon which messages we're
first sent. Now the United States has
1854, 954 miles of telegraph wire instead
of 40, and it SURPRISES the other coun-
tries of The world in its telegraph Lusl-
ness. The whole world has more than
600. 600 miles of telegraph lines, or
enough to put wire a times around
the whole world and have some thous-
ands of miles to spare. China has only
944 miles of wire, and when Yen consid
err that its population is six times
the United States you can see what
immense opportunity is opon to such u
scheme as that of Wharton Barker and
Mitkiewicz China has just 22-lOO OF n
mile of wire TO every 1000 square miles
of territory, or in round numbers, hard
" more than foot Of wire io every
square nile of her territory. Belgium.
on the other hand. which hats perhaps
the most telegraph wrc IN proportion
to its territory. has onc-lnlf mile oil
wire to oacl, square mile of territory.
and France has one-lhird of n mile OF
wire to each square mile of area. In
all Europe there is not much more than
twice the amount of telegraph lines that
there are in the United States, and We
send about 20, 600 900 messages 81 year
10 half that number by Great Britain.
Japan is rapidly increasing MS q tclc-
graphic nation, and il sends more than
5000. 900 messages 4 year. II IS Ills ac-